While the rest of the world wonders and worries about Wayne Rooney's left metatarsal (or is it the right?) there are bigger problems facing the women of Iraq. From the Independent:
The women of Basra have disappeared. Three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, women's secular freedoms - once the envy of women across the Middle East - have been snatched away because militant Islam is rising across the country.
Could the Bush administration be remembered for being the one that shut down the UN? From the Guardian, the money quote is at the end:
A senior UN official, Shashi Tharoor, said on Tuesday that the UN risked having to shut down if the US and Japan carried out a threat to withhold funding because management reforms had not been sufficiently implemented.
Remember Katrina? No? Okay, do you remember Trent Lott's house? I thought so. Arianna Huffington, pinch hitting at The Washington Note, is reminded why the levees failed. It wasn't Katrina's fault, it was your government at work. Unfortunately, they were never taught to clean up their mess:
Over nine months later, 250,000 are still homeless or displaced, bodies are still being found, tens of thousands of homes still need rebuilding, disaster preparedness for New Orleans has been cut in half, and hurricane recovery funding is still slogging its way through Congress.
Remember, the World Cup starts tomorrow. Keep your eyes on the ball™.